Creating an MSO: Viral Emotions and the Keys to Social Play, GDC China 2009

There is more to social gaming than spamming your friends. Rather than play to the edges of a social network to increase viral distribution playing to the center deepens the connections between friends. The Keys to Social Play map out new forms of engagement that create tension and motivation through social interaction. These Keys structure social engagement (what we call People Fun) by giving players what they value the most: shared experiences and increased bonds between friends. Like micropayments there are nickels of time in peoples lives and a thirst to convert them into social capital. The biggest opportunity in multiplayer gaming is an MSO (massively social online game) that aggregates these into meaningful social experiences. Together we will explore social gaming from WOW, MAPLE STORY, PARKING WARS, to XEODesign's own iPhone games: TILT and TATTLETALZ.com.

Design Emotions to Drive Social Distribution at XEODesign’s First Public XEOPlayShop! November 9th, Seattle WA co-hosted with SigCHI Puget Sound!

Using Fun to Drive Social Distribution and Monetization Without Spamming Your Friends, A XEOPlayShop Often ignored by usability, neuroscience now proves that emotion deeply connects decision making and performance. Emotions also coordinate the actions between people. The trick is that emotions and social experiences are emergent qualities that cannot be designed directly. Nicole brings this challenge to life in her workshop.

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If you like these slides, learn how to apply them to your game or social UI!

What’s fascinating is that we used to be impressed with 13M players in WOW Now talking about Social games with 30-40M by PlayFish and Zynga This is only the beginning!

What do games that the whole world wants to play look like? What themes? Emotions?

What drives social distribution? Social Media Research tells us that Facebook and Twitter creates emotions around 3 channels

MSO / Social Media Ability to Connect Feedback Personalize The question remains what causes one game to go viral and another not? What to look for is the emotions How monetize something that’s free? MSO Design Principles 1. Connect and make friends 2. Feedback to keep the ball in play 3. Personalize play as well as avatars

First we must understand the relationship between emotions and the choices players make in games.

Playing together on the Wii creates emotions. Moving together is enjoyment as is teasing each other. We don’t design boss monsters, For social games we design the experiences between players.

Emotions can also come from interaction with characters in game

Emotion from interaction also behind the iPhone success The verbs Apple’s iPhone offers change the emotions that users experience * Stroke iPhone to share Photos * Rotate to create wonder * Connect to others for social bonding and amusement

Best selling games have 3 of the 4 keys. Players tend to enjoy 3 of the 4 keys the most and will shift between them in a single play session. People Fun is where we focus today. The 4 Fun Keys is a PX model for how games create the emotions people most enjoy. Game designers cannot design the emotions that players feel directly. Instead they design the mechanics that offer players choices (in the center of the diagram). It is in the making of these choices that players feel the emotions coming from gameplay. It is this new way of creating emotion that separates games from other media. What is most important here is designing the center to create emotion in at least 3 of the 4 quadrants. Turns out that by watching people play there are over 30 emotions that come from the choices that players make in games. Designers who understand the relationship between their game mechanics and these emotions can craft these emotions as early as the concept stage rather than waiting for the end of design or even production where changes are harder to make. At XEODesign we can track how players really react to the game in context. We looked at what create emotion in players and mapped that to what they liked the most about games. There are seven emotions in the face and more in the body. We look at these emotions and match them to game mechanics to hack the “what’s fun?” problem from the player’s perspective. Watching emotions as people play we find that emotions are fluid and braided over time, one emotion blending into the next. These models can be used to diagnose problems in the player experience and connect strong emotions with the game design and not leave them up to chance as we have here. There isn’t a language for many of these emotions or how to create them.

Let’s look into how games create Hard Fun and more emotions like Fiero* for players. Hard Fun: Emotions about choices from mechanics in the game. Emotions about choices made in the game. Several game features and mechanics enhance a player’s sense of Fiero and progress in the game. Hard Fun is the perfect balance of player skill with game difficulty. If the game is too easy the player quits because they are bored. If the game is too hard players quit because they are too frustrated. On the right are the choices and emotions players feel from the Hard Fun activities in a game, such as working towards a goal or scoring points. I first knew we were on to something new when I started seeing patterns in game players not predicted by Csikszentmihalyi’s model of Flow. First of all, emotional states for good games had to vary over time, not just get harder. So we added a wiggly line. Secondly, we saw a lot more emotions than boredom and frustration (anxiety). For example for Fiero to occur players had to become so frustrated that they were about ready to quit. To get Fiero, the player must succeed just when they are on the verge of quitting. When they achieve at that point they experience a huge phase shift in the body from feeling very bad to feeling very good. This enhances the positive elative feelings of Fiero. Players enjoyed alternating between Hard Fun and Easy Fun (definition coming up) to prevent becoming too frustrated or to motivate the next round of challenges. *Fiero is Italian word for “Personal triumph over adversity.” We don’t have a word in English for it, or an emoticon. o/

Hard fun is about challenge and mastery. Super Monkey Ball would not be as fun if you couldn’t fall off the edge.

We don’t have a language to describe what fun is and how to create it. To develop this PX model we used XEODesign’s Emotional Response Analysis to conduct Design Research. Where we have defined new terms to describe how players react to their favorite parts of games. Fiero: personal triumph over adversity Often the arms and legs punch out/jump in victory How many look for Fiero during play testing? How many have changed a design to get more Fiero?

Easy Fun: Best selling games offer interactions outside the main challenge to inspire player imagination and capture their attention in between challenges. Thse opportunities for fantasy exploration and role play increase immersion into the game world and offer a refreshing alternative to the emotions from Hard Fun. Players often self regulate when the challenge becomes too hard by switching from Hard Fun activities to Easy Fun such as goofing off inside the game, off track play, or exploring what Will Wright calls “interesting failure states.” Like Improv Theater games such as Grand Theft Auto make offers to the player. To get from point A to point B in a mission the game offers the player a car, in fact any car they want and then other things such as parking meters, plate glass windows, freeway exit ramps. The game leaves it up to the player to explore how the two interact.

Easy Fun is like a Japanese Garden

People Fun is what we are focus on - social interaction is what drives social distribution Here a mother and her son play Wii Boxing. The competition and social interaction make it more fun. She enjoys how it helps her work out a little of that “parent child frustration.”

Single concept Simple mechanic Easy contribution (everyone knows how to act like a Pirate or Zombi or take care of a pet) 3 Mistakes * “WOW killer” * Hardcore solo niche game (Hard core only15% of market) * User created games

The relationship is the message. (numbers are from 2008) Social games are a conversation. It takes 2 to understand the message, because the message includes the emotions from social interaction around the media. It is the experience of passing the message and feeling closer, knowing who you can count on to make each other laugh - that counts Not the experience of the media but how the media expands the friendship (likes and dislikes) The video or photo becomes a social token, is another way of telling a story. The video may not be entertaining enough to justify popcorn and $10 to watch. But the social context in which the video is sent is. The social tokens supports social interaction as people enjoy the emotions coming from sharing or creating something they like. “ The Guido Fan Club Part 1” is a video response to “My New Hair Cut” Social media offers a new way of connecting people because it hosts the conversation. = References = The Guido Fan Club Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO0orX2mXoo My New Hair Cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JMOh-cul6M&amp;feature=related 1,500 video posts of related videos - shared related other stories

For technology to bring people closer, it must first connect them. What would get all your friends to play? Relationship is the message - Connection with others 1. Establish connection 2. Activity we mutually agree 3. Deepen feeling of connection through play

The term “Social Capital” must die Overly focus game mechanics on scarcity based transactions. Friendship is an abundance mechanic. Money damages the social network it travels on

The research generated a lot of insights into the nature of emotion and how people play together. In our study, what people enjoyed the most in Social Media and Multiplayer games showed some surprising similarities. The three most interesting threads are how emotion comes from connecting friends, the messages they pass, and the actions they take. Each of these are channels that carry and amplify the emotions between people. Understanding the nature of these channels is the key to designing richer experiences that connect players. MSO Design Principles 1. Connect and make friends 2. Feedback to keep the ball in play 3. Personalize play as well as avatars Your challenge is to use both of these to inform your next generation of web 2.0. I have lots of ideas. The first rule for these systems to coordinate thousands of worker bees, is to provide a simple goal and a role for people to play. Without these it takes longer to learn how to participate and more effort to coordinate working together. Most Web 2.0 sites such as Flickr and Wikipedia have very simple goals and only one or two actions so people know what to do and can work together without a lot of coordination.

http://www.greatdanepro.com/Blue%20Bueaty/index.htm

From 1 to 6B How do you get there? Can’t buy that many players. 3 Mistakes * Spam friends to max installs * Play to edges Require synchronous play

Social goods and services - too many to name here Players are attracted to make choices that create the most emotion People Fun social interaction has the most emotion than the other three keys In the game Maple Story (published by Nexon), it is the social value that justifies someone spending $5 for colored contact lenses for their avatar or additional emotes. There are a lot of design decisions used to support enjoying the game more in this way. == References == --- Maple Story, Nexon http://www.mcvuk.com/press-releases/32203/MapleStoryndash-Game-Currencies-And-Cash-Shop-Explained The Cash Shop � Spending NEXON Cash MapleStory offers those players looking to stand out in the online crowd everything from the latest fashions in clothing, hair salon coupons to plastic surgery coupons and other appearance-altering items � all of which can be purchased from the Cash Shop. To do this, players need to click on the red 舛 A SH SHOP � button at the bottom of the screen to enter. Here you can recharge NEXON Cash through three, ultra-safe payment systems, those being: PayPal, Click&amp;Buy and Paysafecard ,as well, using this button. If you run out of NEXON Cash, you can only purchase an item after recharging it. You can also check the amount of NEXON cash you have left in your account by clicking the green 舛 h eck Cash � button, as well. Another neat feature of the Cash Shop is the ability to try before you buy. Double-click on the item you&apos;d like to purchase to see your character try on the item at the top left corner � the perfect way to see if the item looks good or not! Most of the equipment you purchase is largely just decorative for your character. Put simply, these items go over whatever equipment you are currently wearing, masking your current equipment. You can also buy pets at the Cash Shop, and equipment for pets. The latest MapleStory Europe Cash Shop update includes, for example, the hugely popular Red Hood, Lined Hip-Hop Pants, and Henesy 痴 Cosmetic Lens Coupon. The Red Cape fits snuggly over any costume currently adorning your character and doesn 稚 affect the Mapler 痴 level of protection. The lined, hip and happening Hip-Hop Pants are the latest in a long line of fashionable clothes available in the Cash Shop, and the cosmetic lenses are the ultimate fashion expression in choosing the colour of your character 痴 eyes. -- wikipedia 50MM subs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MapleStory MapleStory ( Korean : 메이플스토리 ) is a free-of-charge , 2D , side-scrolling Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game developed by the Korean company Wizet . Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, and each is published by various companies such as Wizet and Nexon . Although playing the game is free, many player appearances and gameplay enhancements can be purchased from the &amp;quot; Cash Shop &amp;quot; using real money . MapleStory has a combined total of over 50 million subscriber accounts in all of its versions. [1] [2] MapleStory North America (Global), for players mainly in North America and outside of East Asia , Southeast Asia and Europe , has over three million players. [1] In the game, players walk around in the &amp;quot;Maple World&amp;quot; and defeat monsters and develop their character&apos;s skills and abilities, as in typical role-playing games . Players can interact with others in many ways, such as through chatting , trading , and playing minigames . Groups of players can band together in parties to hunt monsters and share the rewards. Players can also band in a guild to interact more easily with each other.

http://www.greatdanepro.com/Blue%20Bueaty/index.htm

Provide social interaction as part of gameplay Summary: The market has shifted (Perfect Storm) New Goal: Empowering games that connect friends challenge, imagine, value, connection connecting these features ina way that cues the next action (choose the features on the lines) Harness the emotions from social interaction: Everyone: can play Social Features to create social emotions Tilt Factor: Mechs that reward increasing the number of players PX: Offer these in Game Mechanic MTX: Free to play or micro payments

Think about the actions in your game What can make it more social? How can adding more friends make your game more fun?

The Perfect Storm is working together. We can pick ourselves up and build small games that make a big difference to you, your friends, the world

The 4 Fun Keys is a PX model for how games create the emotions people most like. Game designers cannot design the emotions that players feel directly. Instead they design the mechanics that offer players choices (in the center of the diagram). It is in the making of these choices that players feel the emotions coming from gameplay. It is this new way of creating emotion that separates games from other media. What is most important here is designing the center to create emotion in at least 3 of the 4 quadrants. Turns out that by watching people play there are over 30 emotions that come from the choices that players make in games. Designers who understand the relationship between their game mechanics and these emotions can craft these emotions as early as the concept stage rather than waiting for the end of design or even production where changes are harder to make.

Social games just like social media and web 2.0 is a conversation Imagine your next game what conversation do you want the whole world to have? Working together we just might change the world

Many are out of work in the industry today, but remember The MSO will be built by people - small groups working together - like the person sitting next to you. Special thanks to all the talented people on my team creating Tilt and TattleTalz. It is the collaboration and the emotions from team work that works into the game.

I look forward to playing your games next year! Stay in Touch.

Transcript of "Creating an MSO: Viral Emotions and the Keys to Social Play, GDC China 2009"

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Creating an MSO: (Massively Social Online Games) Viral Emotions and the Keys to Social Play Nicole Lazzaro, President XEODesign, Inc. GDC China October 13, 2009 XEODesign Putting Emotion into Play ® ™ Follow me on Twitter: @NicoleLazzaro Twitter: #gdcchina

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XEODesign The 4 Keys to More Emotion Winner Best Game 2007 Tilt the first iPhone accelerometer game

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MSO: 3 Laws of Social Play for viral social games (this is what we do know) this is what the play will look like <ul><li>Friends Messages Actions </li></ul><ul><li>Connect It Takes 2 </li></ul><ul><li>Feedback Draw Circles </li></ul><ul><li>Social Tokens symbolic in nature that increases in value with use </li></ul>stupid shutup dope hotness sloth poke pwn share link frag compare Lazzaro GDC 2008

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Do you play “follow the leader” to increase your personal hype quotient? What would encourage idea exchange? Personal Hype Quotient

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People Fun Feeling of being closer creates social fabric between people TattleTalz.com Winner Best Game 2008

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Friendship ≠ Money why social capital must die <ul><li>Like oil and water don’t give you $100 to drive me to the airport </li></ul><ul><li>More give more have </li></ul><ul><li>Reverse interest </li></ul><ul><li>“ Money is there for when friendship cannot take care of it.” Jerry Michalski </li></ul>Yes this is an ad! How does he feel?